


A Better Man than Me

by GrumpyJenn



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: Children of Earth Compliant, Mistaken Identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-02
Updated: 2014-09-02
Packaged: 2018-02-15 21:00:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2243340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrumpyJenn/pseuds/GrumpyJenn





	A Better Man than Me

_“Say what you want, because you're a better man than me.”_

_~John Frobisher, Torchwood: Children of Earth_

Jack Harkness stared in horrified shock at the man standing before him, leaning against the blue box. “No,” he whispered. “You’re dead. _No_.”

John Frobisher gave Jack a look of mixed perplexity and exasperation, and then his face cleared. “Oh...” he said, and smiled. Jack shuddered. “The face. Don’t ye see, Jack? It’s me. The Doctor.”

“No,” Jack heard himself say again, but this time it wasn’t denial. It was something closer to despair. “No, the Doctor wouldn’t... he wouldn’t... not after the...” And then Jack realised all at once that he _did_ believe that this was the Doctor, but... “How _could_ you...?”

“How could I _what_ , Jack, ye’re not usually this daft.”

Jack stared. “You’re Scottish,” he accused.

“Well, yes. So it seems,” the Doctor said, “Clara!”

_Clara? What...?_

A petite and curvy brunette popped out the door of the TARDIS. She seemed to take in the situation at a single glance, and she gave the Doctor a severe look.

“What’d you do to him?” she demanded, and the Doctor shrugged.

“Don’t know, can we get onto something else now?”

“ _Doctor_.”

By this point, Jack had recovered somewhat, at least enough that he could look at the Doctor without a full body shudder. And not the fun kind.

“You look like the man who... who...” _Okay, maybe not so recovered._

“Who _what_?” demanded the Doctor.

“Oh, no,” breathed the girl, taking a more careful look at Jack. “Captain, I’m so sorry.”

“About _what_?” This Doctor was not a patient man.

“The four five six,” the girl, presumably Clara, said shortly, and the Doctor got a faraway look, as though he was searching a mental database. Jack thought he probably was.

“Oh.”

“Yeah, ‘oh’. Doc, _why_ would you choose _this_ face?” Jack intended to say more but he choked on it again, and Clara put a consoling hand on his arm.

“He doesn’t know, Captain,” Clara said. “He’s still new and he doesn’t know why this face looks familiar. But he’s a g—I don’t think he’d deliberately hurt you.”

“Thanks for that,” Jack heard the Doctor mutter under his breath as the alien shot Clara an indecipherable glance.

“Any time,” she said cheerfully, and gave Jack’s arm a little squeeze.

“Right then,” said the Doctor. “I don’t know why this face but it wasn’t t’hurt ye. And I don’t think the face you know is the face I meant. It is, but it’s not; I wasn’t on Earth with the four fi—yes, well...” He trailed off and Jack found himself smiling at him. He looked different, but there were elements to all his regenerations – at least those Jack had seen that were the same.

So Jack relaxed. It didn’t matter what the Doctor looked like, not after the initial shock.He was a better man than that.

He was the Doctor.


End file.
